Crippled, Injured, Sick, and Tortured Birds: Undercover Investigations Expose Kentucky Fried Cruelty Worldwide
“[KFC] never had any meetings. They never asked any advice, and then they touted to the press that they had this animal-welfare advisory committee. I felt like I was being used.”
—Dr. Adele Douglass, former animal welfare advisor to KFC, Chicago Tribune
Every time undercover investigators enter the facilities of KFC’s suppliers, they find hideous abuse and suffering. At one KFC “Supplier of the Year” slaughterhouse in West Virginia, workers were caught tearing birds’ heads off, ripping them apart, spitting tobacco into their eyes, spray-painting their faces, and throwing them against walls—all while the birds were still conscious and able to feel pain. This is in stark contrast to KFC’s claim that it “only deal[s] with suppliers who promise to maintain our high standards and commitment to animal welfare.”
Some of the largest and most respected newspapers in the United States, Canada, Europe, and Australia have written scathing editorials decrying the conditions at these facilities, and customers have spoken with their wallets, turning away from KFC in droves as they learn about the hideous ways that the more than 850 million chickens who end up in KFC’s buckets each year are abused.
The investigations detailed below prove that KFC desperately needs to adopt the recommendations of its animal welfare advisors (five of whom have quit in recent years after KFC refused to listen to their advice) to eliminate at least the very worst abuses that chickens suffer for KFC.
In the United States
Tyson's Dirty Deeds Exposed During New Undercover Investigation A PETA investigation into two Tyson Foods plants exposes disgusting conditions that the KFC supplier does not want you to see. Watch the undercover video, then write to Tyson and KFC urging both companies to end their cruel practices!
A PETA undercover investigation at a Missouri slaughterhouse owned by KFC “Supplier of the Year” George’s, Inc. documented that live birds were being thrown by workers, scalded alive, and injured by broken transport cages.
Workers at a former KFC “Supplier of the Year” slaughterhouse in West Virginia were caught tearing birds apart, spitting tobacco into their eyes, spray-painting their faces, stomping on them, and throwing them against walls—all while the birds were still conscious.
Workers at a KFC-supplier slaughterhouse in Maryland were documented punching frenzied, terrified birds and spiking them like footballs, among other sadistic acts of cruelty.
Maryland-based animal rights group Compassion Over Killing documented the entire 45-day cycle of a KFC chicken shed. Check out a week-by-week snapshot into these horrible conditions and the drug-induced, crippling injuries caused by one of KFC’s top suppliers.
A whistleblower at a Tyson slaughterhouse testified that birds intentionally were scalded to death, were blown apart by makeshift firecrackers, and had their legs broken by workers to fit them into slaughter-line shackles. Tyson is KFC’s number one supplier.
A PETA undercover investigation found workers who were ripping live animals’ heads off and shoddy, outdated slaughter machines cutting open birds’ legs, wings, and chest cavities at this Tyson plant in Alabama.
KFC United Kingdom exposed! Journalist Martin Coutts wrote a scathing article for the Sunday Mirror—one of the largest newspapers in the world, with nearly 5 million readers—that detailed a lengthy undercover investigation conducted at one of KFC’s largest U.K. suppliers: “Distressed and Dying in a Cramped Shed … Nobody Does Chicken Like KFC,” announced the headline.
KFC Australia exposed! Crippled birds were found among the corpses of other animals in barren, windowless sheds during an undercover investigation into KFC supplier Ingham’s. See the rescue of 20 chickens by Animal Liberation Victoria from a KFC supplier outside Melbourne.
KFC New Zealand exposed! A group of New Zealand activists went to a KFC supplier farm and found crippled chickens everywhere, including those who had slowly died of dehydration after their crippled condition left them unable to reach water. Five chickens were rescued.
KFC Germany exposed! Investigators at this KFC supplier in Germany found 38,000 chickens who were forced to live in a crowded barn covered in their own excrement and were given steady doses of antibiotics to keep them alive through conditions so filthy that the birds would have otherwise died.
KFC India exposed! An undercover investigation of a KFC supplier in India found chickens stuffed into extremely crowded warehouses littered with chicken carcasses, birds immobilized by crippling leg deformities caused by cruel breeding practices, sick and injured chickens who never received medical attention, and chickens suffering at the hands of callous workers who neglected to observe even minimal standards of animal welfare.
You Can Help!
Disgusted? We don’t blame you. What KFC does to chickens is enough to make any kind person’s stomach churn. Find out simple ways you can help end this abuse.